We need a fairer curriculum and schools open to all

About a third of all state-funded schools in the UK are “faith schools” or schools “with a religious character”. The state funds the schools almost entirely, while the Church or religious group controls both governance and admittance.

A result of this arrangement is, according to the Institute of Education, that the selection by faith schools leads to greater social segregation, with no improvement in an area's results.

The government is, however, increasing faith education with 70 percent of applications for free schools coming from religious organisations.

The British Humanist Association has long campaigned for an end to state funding for faith schools and a fairer curriculum. A curriculum that accommodates pupils of all faiths and those who do not believe in a god. State funding for all faith schools should be scraped.

The public opinion is overwhelmingly in favour of all schools being open to all, as a recent Ipsos Mori poll shows.

Part of a fairer and more balanced curriculum is teaching about all faiths as well as secular beliefs and values ideologies, including humanism as part of Religious Education.

Let's prepare our children for adult life in a pluralist society and make sure that they develop curiosity, creativity and their own thinking skills. That includes participating in sex and relationships education as well as values and citizenship education.

School prayer
The School Standards and Framework Act 1998 states that all pupils in state schools have to attend “a collective act of worship” every day. These have to be "wholly or mainly of a broadly Christian character".

School prayers were unheard of when I went to school in my native Germany in the 80s. I wonder how a secular state with a large migrant, non-Christian population, such as the UK, can allow, and even encourage, collective school prayer.

Parents can ask for the pupils to be excused from attending, but the default is a Christian school prayer.

It puts a lot of pressure on parents when they have to decide to ask the teacher to exclude their child from the 'collective act of worship'. I'm not a parent, but I would think twice before asking for my child to be excused. It's not easy to tell your child that you don't want it to attend something. Especially, if its classmates are.

Children should find out for themselves if they believe in a god or not. There should be no pressure on them to decide.

But how can they do that if one of the first things their learn about religion is to say a Christian prayer?

Examples in real life
A good example for a fair curriculum is the Richmond Inclusive School Campaign. It is opposing plans put forward by the Council and the Catholic Church to set up a faith school. Instead parents are campaigning for an inclusive school that doesn't favour pupils of Catholic faith. That includes admissions equally open to all children and a fair curriculum with a balanced syllabus teaching religious and non-religious matters alike.

For more information on a secular curriculum please visit the website of the campaigning coalition accord.